Lynn Allen: An appreciation

Lynn Allen, a local architect of “net roots nation”, liberal bloggers who put vitality back into the Democratic Party, died of ovarian cancer last week in Seattle.

Allen, 63, wrote for the Evergreen Politics website. She stood apart in a field filled with contentious, credit-claiming personalities. Allen was known for referencing the writings of others and giving quiet, astute advice behind the scenes.

Allen was campaign blogger for Gov. Chris Gregoire in 2004, worked for House candidate Darcy Burner in 2008, and later worked on rural development with the Institute for Washington’s Future.

Allen was a Mercer Island native, and anti-war activist at the University of Washington. She was involved with an effort by Seattle’s then-Mayor Wes Uhlman to establish links between city government and a restive UW student population at a time when demonstration/marches drew as many as 10,000 people.

Allen later went into the field of organizational management training, and spent nearly 30 years living in the San Francisco Bay area. She was in New York to conduct a seminar at World Trade Center 3 on the morning of 9/11. Allen wrote movingly of the day, gathering together observations and not making herself the central figure.

After moving back to Seattle, Allen did consulting work for Intel, studied Buddhism and found every possible opportunity to visit with her niece in Portland.